Posted by Adrienne Boswell on 02/21/07 07:30

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "idiotprogrammer"
<idiotprogrammer@gmail.com> writing in news:1171996064.419463.89950
@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

> Hi, my boss has told me I need to put "target_new" for all external
> hyperlinks.
>
> I find this to be bothersome and contrary to current web trends. But I
> can find no articles or recommendations to back me up here.
>
> What do you guys think?
>
> I have about 300 pages in a CMS that I need to change hyperlinks for,
> and I'd like to be able to make a case for not having to do this (and
> not merely because I'm lazy, but because I think it ruins the user
> experience).
>
> Robert Nagle
> houston, Texas
> http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/
>

I have a boss just like yours. As many times as I have told her what a
bad idea it is, she INSISTS. She says that I'm too techy and that
ordinary people LIKE extra windows (so they can move them about and
compare things). I HATE popups, new windows, etc.

What you CAN do, if you are unsuccessful at convincing your boss, is to
be sure and put something in the title attribute about how the link
opens in a new window. At least visitors will be aware. You can also
use javascript to open said window (so it will only work for js users):

//this nice javascript will open external links in a new window -
//http://www.sitepoint.com/article/standards-compliant-world/3
//usage <a href="somepage.html" rel="external">

function externalLinks() {
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) {
var anchor = anchors[i];
if (anchor.getAttribute("href") &&
anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external")
{anchor.target = "new";
anchor.title = anchor.title+" in a new window";}
else
{anchor.title = anchor.title;}
}
}

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
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